Magnetic Bearing

A bearing is a machine element which support another moving machine element. It permits relative motion between the contact surfaces of the members, while carrying a load. Two main types of bearing are sliding contact bearing and rolling contact bearing. In these types of bearings, by relative motion between the contact surfaces, a certain amount of power wasted in overcome frictional resistance and thus cause rapid wear. Fluid added to the space between the bearing and Journal to overcome these difficulties, a new bearing introduced ie Magnetic Bearings.

Magnetic bearings are designed to support rotating and linear moving machinery elements without contact with rotor thus accomplished by electro-magnet (bearing) will attract a ferromagnetic material (rotor) using this principle rotor can be suspended in magnetic field which is generated by bearing. There are three components that make up magnetic bearing, those are actuators, sensors and control system. The main advantage of magnet bearing are, no lubrication, free abrasions, free of wear maintenance good thermal isolation of the rotor and stator and small bearing loss.